The Geneva Deception Read Online Free PDF Page A

types of gigs never go down quite like you plan them. Because you know I might spot something you won’t.’
    There was a pause as Stokes and Jennifer both swapped a look, and then laughed.
    ‘That’s pretty much it, I guess.’ Stokes nodded with a grudging smile.
    ‘When’s this happening?’
    ‘Tonight in Vegas. On the main floor at the Amalfi.’
    ‘Kezman’s joint?’
    ‘Yep,’ Stokes nodded.
    ‘That’s smart. Busy. Exposed. Plenty of civilian cover. Multiple escape routes.’
    ‘So you’ll do it?’ Jennifer asked hopefully.
    There was a sharp rap on the window. Tom lowered it and Archie peered in, the rain dripping off his umbrella.
    ‘Very bloody cosy,’ he observed with a wry smile. ‘Not interrupting anything, am I?’
    ‘I don’t think you two have ever actually met before, have you?’ Tom asked, sitting back so Jennifer could lean across him and shake his hand.
    ‘Not properly.’ She smiled.
    ‘What do you want with my boy this time?’ Archie sniffed, eyeing her carefully.
    ‘The Nativity has turned up,’ Tom answered for her. ‘They want me to fly to Vegas with them to help handle the exchange.’
    ‘I’ll bet they do. What’s our take?’
    Tom looked searchingly at Jennifer and then at Stokes, who shrugged sheepishly.
    ‘Looks like the usual fee,’ he said with a smile. ‘Attaboys all round.’
    ‘Well, bollocks to that, then,’ Archie sniffed. ‘You and I are meant to be meeting Dom in Zurich tomorrow night to see a real client. One that pays and doesn’t try and lock you up every five seconds.’ He gave first Jennifer, then Stokes, a reproachful glare.
    Tom nodded slowly. Having given up on the Swiss police, the curator of the Emile Bũhrle Foundation wanted their help recovering four paintings worth a hundred and eighty million dollars taken at gunpoint the previous month. Archie had a point.
    ‘I know.’
    A pause. He turned back to Jennifer.
    ‘Who’ll handle the exchange if I don’t?’
    ‘Me, I guess,’ she replied with a shrug. ‘At least, that was the plan until you flashed up on the system.’
    There was a long silence, Tom looking first at Jennifer, then Stokes. He turned back to Archie.
    ‘Why don’t I just meet you in Zurich tomorrow.’
    ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, Tom,’ Archie protested. ‘I don’t know why I bother sometimes.’
    ‘One night. That’s all,’ Tom reassured him. ‘I’ll be on the first flight out.’
    ‘Fine,’ Archie sighed. ‘But you can deal with Hewson.’ Archie stepped back and pointed downthe slope towards a lonely figure who appeared to be patiently waiting for them to return. ‘He’s doing my bloody head in.’
    ‘Whatever he’s got for me, it’s waited this long -’ Tom sat back with a shrug - ‘it can wait a day longer.’

FIVE
    Largo di Torre Argentina, Rome 17th March - 6.06 p.m.
    Allegra could just about make out one of the men’s low voices. A pathologist, she guessed.
    ‘Cause of death? Well, I’ll only know when I open him up. But at a guess, oedema of the brain. Upside down, the heart continues to pump blood through the arteries, but because the veins rely on gravity, his brain would have become swollen with blood. Fluid would then have leaked out of his capillaries, first causing a headache, then gradual loss of consciousness and finally death, probably from asphyxiation as the brain signals driving respiration failed. Terrible way to go.’
    ‘How long has he been here?’ the man next to him asked. From his flinty, aggressive tone, Allegra knew immediately that this had to be Gallo.
    ‘All day. Possibly longer. It was a cold night and that would have slowed decomposition.’
    ‘And no one saw him until now?’ Gallo snapped, his voice both angry and disbelieving. She could just about detect the vestiges of a Southern accent, presumably carefully discarded over the years. After all, provincial roots were not exactly something you advertised if you wanted to get ahead. Not in Rome.
    ‘No one